Skip to main content

tv   This Is America With Dennis Wholey  PBS  June 24, 2012 10:00am-10:30am EDT

10:00 am
>> our guest on "this is america" is alyse nelson, president and ceo of vital voices global partnership. she is also author of the new book, "vital voices: the power of women leading change around the world." thank you so much for joining us, sitting down and talking a little bit about "vital voices." if somebody is just running and bumping up against this phrase and this term and organization for the first time, what would you say? >> if i had two seconds i would say investing in women to improve the world. >> investing in women to improve the world. how does that show up on a day- to-day basis?
10:01 am
>> we searched the world for what we believe is the most extraordinary untapped potential, women leaders. they could be women safeguarding human rights, building a stronger political systems, women who are pulling people out of poverty through finance and entrepreneurship, and we invest in that. they are leading networks of other so we know by investing them they will pull up the entire network. >> when you say invest, how do you invest? >> not through money necessarily. more through social and human capital investment. what i mean by that is connecting them to a network of their peers, which i think is important because leadership, you know, is a very lonely occupation. they are trailblazers in their country. but we connected with mentors, provide them with training and we do sometimes provide financial support but that has not been the most and ports and thing. we found the connections and providing them with the skills training to be more effective. >> is it fair to say it is a
10:02 am
global organization? in extremely. 144 countries. the muddy have a membership? >> sort of. we train and support women but we do not support them with a program -- it really is on their life path of leadership. many of the women we support it, we call them alumni or network members, even train them for 14, 15 -- a long time. >> we will talk and little bit about your book in a few minutes. pick out a couple out of the air and show us how it works. >> how are investments work? sure. one feature is a woman from kenya. i met heard in 2006. i will tell you a little bit about her story so you know the impact. she grew up in the masai village
10:03 am
in kenya. and girls at age seven were pulled out of school and they've underwent female genital cutting and then were basically promised to be married. from her perspective, our life from that point was over. she looked at her mother and she did not want to end up in the same situation. so, she realized she had one tool to negotiate with, and that was going through practice of the female circumcision and she negotiate with her father and her father said, yes, i will keep you in school and you do not have to be promised to be married if you go through this practice -- and they agreed. she went through the practice and they stayed in school and she made it through high school and then she decided -- did not know how she got the idea -- she decided she wanted to go to college and the united states. she managed to get a scholarship in pittsburgh. she somehow manages to get her village all together to pull their money together to get her
10:04 am
on a flight to pittsburgh. i need. in 2006, a dissertation away from her ph.d. in education -- i meet her in 2006. this has been her personal pac but when she says to me when i meet her, she says i have a debt to pay back. i need to go back to my country and i need to build the first girls' school in my community and i need to change culture. i need for people to understand they need to keep their girls in school. we go back with her and we hope for break ground on the new school. to me it would alternate success. i remember, i was very concerned -- we have to bring a powerful group of women to surround her when she was breaking ground. but actually the fact that we just showed up was important. it made people in the village really feel as though the world is watching. and i -- so many men said i am her brother, hite and her
10:05 am
father. every man wanted to be connected to her. to me, that was success because that was a culture shift. they were proud of one of her daughters who came back to break ground on the school. we helped her regain training and support to build the school. now there are 90 girls to -- attending. >> as we are listening to you, the role that the vital voices plays, tell us about it. >> they met her, saw leadership potential and invested in training and mentors and helped her to raise her own money. we nominated her for awards which also gave her increased visibility. she was able to use the funds and the increased credibility -- and there was also confidence. you know what she said to me when she left to go back to africa to start up this?
10:06 am
she said, when i left my village, no one came except for my mother to see me off. when i left the united states to go back, i have a family of people rooting for me. you can't underestimate. as i said before, leadership is a lonely occupation. >> nicely done. you have given us a taste of what you are up to. just a couple of questions before we go to the break. i would just hold you to watch right now carry the old u2 one right now. a ceremony at the kennedy center where you will be giving awards to a number of women all over the world. we are going to meet some of them in the next couple of days, however programs. tell us just in a headline the four women we are going to be meeting. >> extraordinary group of women from the middle east.
10:07 am
a woman from libya who was actually part of the national transitional council, elected to be one of the two women. she resigned in protest. >> number two? >> a woman named shafa who is a blogger from yemen, she said they created a new normal in overthrowing a dictator. then maryann from egypt. working to bring different parts of civil society together. she is a youth activist and a women's activist and talked- about been normal, out in the square men and women were not men and women -- the new normal. youthnisia, a wonderful
10:08 am
activist who comes from a family of activists. when she went to school outside of our country she was denied access back in. she was able finally after the revolution to get back. she is a dynamo. >> alyse nelson is our guest, president and ceo of the organization by whole voices -- vital voices, and the book i have in my hand, "vital voices: the power of women leading change around the world." the forward isy by hillary clinton and we will talk about this is bang clinton -- mrs. clanton when we are back. >> "this is america" is made possible by the national education association, the nation's largest advocate for children and public education. poongsan corporation, forging a
10:09 am
higher global standard. the ctc foundation, afo communications, and the rotondaro family trust. >> alyse, beijing, 1995, a big u.n. conference, the fourth, i think they said, which was a women's conference. and you where there. how did you get to go there? you were in school at the time. >> i was 21 at the time. >> you graduated from emerson? >> was between my junior and senior year at college. i was just desperate to understand my place in the world. i was desperate, growing up in this increasingly interconnected global society, wanting to know
10:10 am
what rights and opportunities to women around the world face? i knew my mother and grandmother have -- had fought so i could have almost the same rights as men in this country. not quite there yet, but close. but i believe it probably was not the case around the world but you could not read books or news people articles back then about what was going on with women around the world. >> it was hidden. and they talked about women's issues. but go ahead. >> i heard about the conference and i decided to be there. >> how did you get the money to go? [laughter] >> i saved and borrowed money. i finally paid it back. i saved and borrowed money. i had to get there. >> , the countries were represented and how many women? >> 189 countries and governments
10:11 am
at the official conference and in the ngo forum, $55,000 -- 55,000 women. >> ok. at the end of the conference, by that time first lady hillary clinton gives a talk. how did it go down and what was the impact of what did she say? >> for me, it was a trance formative moment because as an american woman i was thinking, ok, what can i do and how can i be part of the solution? i found out for the first time about the issue of human trapping, and mike larose finance and how it was transforming southeast asia -- human trafficking and micro financing. it was good to see her speaking out so boldly. and i felt like in that speech she somehow captured every single conversation i had had with women in a little tents and
10:12 am
in the rain and in cafes, when i met there. she took the issues to the world stage. the issues nobody was talking about. it was not popular back then to talk about those issues. i realized at that moment that here was a woman who recognize that she had voice and power and a platform to speak as the first lady of the united states. i don't know if you remember, but it was very critical -- political whether she would go or not and she went. when she spoke out, i think it may be realized that i also have a voice. and i need to use the voice. >> the key phrase was women's rights are human rights and that a good really among all of the women and really echoed around the world. it started off as a government initiative and then it has morphed over the years into an
10:13 am
organization, ngo -- >> non-profit, totally bipartisan or non-ferguson. >> and were you the first employee? >> i was. >> i was thinking about this -- and i will not be cavalier. if you are a bible student and you go back and you say adam and eve, at that time you say he had a lot of power if you are a biblical scholar. at what point along the way did women lose their voice? was it just because men were louder and stronger and may be taller? how did it culturally worked out that half of the population of the world is women -- how did it worked out that women just lost their boys and now this new effort -- and look at how long it took in the united states for women to get their voice? >> i think we are seeing really
10:14 am
interesting trends. i think for a very long time, as we were trying to gain our rights, we were talking about rights and we were saying it is only fair. we are 51% of the population. then i think it shifted over the last decade to look at how -- as 51% of the population you cannot pete -- compete in the marketplace using half of your talent pool. now i think the argument will soon become -- and i hope this book helps to contribute -- the fact that women are just an economic force, not just a number to be tapped. we are a different number. we are a leadership force. and i hope we will continue to gain back that power. we lost some of that. >> lost his right. i was thinking -- lost is right. the suffrage movement starts in the late 1800's and not until
10:15 am
1920 do women get the right to vote. i remember doing shows the past 20 years, some of the early women out in front of creating a women's movement in the united states -- so it is a tough slog but at the same time everybody knows women are the cornerstone of the family, the village. thinking of hillary's "it takes a village." and incredible unbalanced going on. you were saying 50% -- 51% of the population cannot own property in certain countries, cannot go to school in many countries and cannot take credit in certain countries, don't have a political voice. i mean, that -- it is almost amazing to think that. >> it is amazing. if you think about it, we are 51% of the population -- we have presence, but what is our power.
10:16 am
if you look globally, we represent 19% of the seats in parliament around the world. over 50% in rwanda -- less than 17% in this country. but it evens out to 19% globally. but i do not believe we actually hold 19% of the power in decision making. >> we have a rather poor track record here in the united states, both in the senate and in the congress. and, lord, i hope some time in the future we have a woman president. and you look at burma, chancellor merkel in germany, the woman who is head of the imf -- lagarde. those are women in the public eye. but you focus on winning in northern ireland who played a huge role in the peace process,
10:17 am
and rwanda, when, after the genocide, it is the women who make a big difference. >> i think the women you talk about to me of the household names. aung san suu kyi, halligan clanton -- luckily they are phenomenal leaders, in my view. -- hillary clinton -- likely they are phenomenal leaders, in my view. to realize it is a good idea actually to have women in that work. we focus on women who have potential, who have talent. we seek them out and find them around the world and we support them from behind some bacon rise up to that level. we are focusing on women who are not household names, but should be and could be. >> some years ago we had a round table conversation and in those days we would have three men, three women, and i put out on the table of the question -- do women see the world differently?
10:18 am
remember, lynn cheney took great umbrage at the question. the question was, do women see the world differently than men do? we kicked it around. but i remember her reaction. the very next day, madeleine albright, who also played a big role and vital voices, she was on "meet the press" with tim russert and he said, madam secretary, do you think women see the world believe that man? she said, of course we do. so, it was night and day. but there was a little wine in the book where you say that women -- line in the book where you say women see problems that men don't see and to solve things from the inside out within a country is the way to go about it. that is why the support that you give the women in their own countries become very important.
10:19 am
>> our approach, which i believe is a very female approach -- >> what does it mean, a female approach? >> we go income i think, listening. so, we go into a country and we don't say, okay, here of the 17 problems and here are the 17 solutions. in some cases, this might be a good approach, but we believe in the work that we do, that would not be the best approach. we believe the best approach is to go into a country and to seek out and find those people, those leaders who have a solution and will have the ideas and invest in them to create their own reality and future. >> you said something that has stuck in my mind. we do it differently. we listened very -- will listen. that is a heck of a statement to put on the table, suggesting that women listen and then just maybe spout off and try to solve the problem heavy handedly. it is interesting. >> this is the style of
10:20 am
leadership we have learned from women, that we have seen women around the world pick up again utilize. but it is not necessarily something that men don't do as well. i think as you see more women in leadership positions around the world, i think nan's style of leadership will change as well. >> but you know what comes into mind watching all of these hearings on cnn, the people up on the hill doing these hearings? they are into performance. a question could be seven words -- and get the answer from the witness. they are up there performing. it is their place in the sun. i want to put this on the table -- it was startling for me to read a statistic. 600 million women live in countries where domestic violence is not a crime. 600 million. my lord.
10:21 am
and then you mention the human trafficking, and genital mutilation. >> that is why it must be solved from within your i cannot go into any of the countries and say this is the problem and you have to fix it. that would not be the way to get to the solution. we have to find those women who are championing the cause and we need to do everything we can to support them. >> you have traveled all over the world. the book -- i was saying right before we went on the air, i use the phrase, the bible is what they use -- that is where i learned it. you just pick a card in. i was reading last night about a wonderful woman in cambodia because i traveled in that country and learned a little bit. she is out there listening, isn't she? just to give me a quick thumbnail. >> as you know, this book is really trying to bring forth a
10:22 am
new leadership model -- five core principles. the second principle is deep roots in the community. >> do the five, real quick. >> you have to have a driving force, sense of mission, you have to be deeply steeped in the community and understand the people you are leading, you need to be of across lines that typically divide -- you have to work with the people that actually does agreed to break through sustainable change. you need to take the bold ideas and turn them into bold actions. it is wanting to have really bold ideas. i thing women are so good at this -- we did not get enough credit for this. women think totally outside of the box because we do not know what the box looks like. we have never been inside the box, for the most part. then and resolve to pay a forward. that is just about how you get back and mentor others. women tell me all the time after they leave one of our programs, saying i feel so full i am going to explode. i have to give it away and share
10:23 am
it. they understand something so fundamental -- that power expands the moment it is shared. when you think about it, when their power and leadership the country just crumbled. look at burma. then you look at the other side of burma, aung san suu kyi, who is all about and powering the people and sharing power. >> you make the point in the book that if you oppress women and do not bring them along, the country kind of stalls in iss progress. if you open it up to everyone, then you can move forward. you think sometimes it is government that plays the key role, but you make a real nice point of saying corporations play a big role. and you go coca-cola, walmart -- people who make huge commitments to bringing women forward. been a huge commitment. and they are making a commitment
10:24 am
not for puerto rico reasons but making them because they realize they are smart -- and not for pr reasons, but making them because they realize they are smart. wal-mart, for example -- this is a multi-billion dollar investment being made. women-owned businesses represent less than 1% of the global supply chain. to multinational corporations. they basically said we are going to double our spending in terms of buying from women-owned businesses. they are the largest. they are the biggest private- sector employer. they are buying from everybody. you can imagine the ripple effect. we are talking about cultural change here. we are not just talking about economic opportunity. we are talking about a cultural shift. >> we are coming to the end of our time. "vital voices" is a book that i certainly hope every woman and go reads but even more so men should be reading the book. based on all of your travels,
10:25 am
200 interviews, profiles of these wonderful women all over the world and some of them will be meeting over the next couple of programs -- "vital voices: the power of women leading chains around the world." this is a terrific book. -- "vital voices: the power of women leading change around the world." it is just out now so we are one of the first. thank you very much. thank you for opening the doors of vital voices to all of our viewers and i look forward to seeing you at the ceremy coming up. thank you very much. for information about my new book "the chance of the law -- "chance of a lifetime closed with an online video for all "this is america " " programs that our website, thisisamerica.net.
10:26 am
and now you can follow us on facebook. "this is america" is made possible by -- the national education association, the nation's largest advocate for children and public education. poongsan corporation, forging a higher global standard. the ctc foundation, afo theunications,andt t rotondaro family trust. rotondaro family trust.
10:27 am
jacque lavista grew up on a ranch.
10:28 am
we all depended on each other. the land is not going to give to you unless you give to it. today, her values reflect that experience. i think public television is very nourishing. and if you give something you'll get something in return. jacque included her public television station in her will. consider joining the community of people who want public television to span generations.
10:29 am

119 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on